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It is DEFINITELY NOT Yongzheng. It IS a very well painted mid-late 19th C. (or possibly later) example of an iron red overglaze enamelled porcelain snuff bottle. Because iron red is painted over the enamel, and is a relatively thin wash, it is easier to do delicate painting. Nice example.

I realised I'd not explained WHY it was later in the 19th C. Look at the dragons' scales: They are done by 'cross-hatching' and then a red 'wash' over. The earlier 19th C. examples have the same cross-hatching and wash, but as well one finds that a dot was added to each diamond-shaped space in the cross-hatching. In the 18th C., each scale is literally painted on individually.Best,Joey

A very nice dragon bottle and I would have dated it the same as Joey; likely the last quarter of the 19th century and could go into the 1st quarter of the 20th. An interesting dragon design in the your looking up at the throat and bottom jaw of the dragon emerging from the waves. This is somewhat of an atypical perspective and to date I've only seen one to two bottles showing a dragon at this angle.

A very nice dragon bottle and I would have dated it the same as Joey; likely the last quarter of the 19th century and could go into the 1st quarter of the 20th. An interesting dragon design in the your looking up at the throat and bottom jaw of the dragon emerging from the waves. This is somewhat of an atypical perspective and to date I've only seen one to two bottles showing a dragon at this angle.

The late Robert Kleiner published a catalogue of 110 of my B & W snuffbottles in 2007, to coincide with a Museum exhibition in the Gardiner Ceramics Museum Sept.-Nov.2007. The catalogue is titled, "In Search Of A Dragon", and I shorten it to "Dragon", since everyone on the Forum seems to have a copy. # 3 shows an 18th C. bottle where the dragon's scales are painted to imitate a 3 dimensional effect. After this was the cross-hatched and dotted style of depicting dragons' scales (and carps'), ca. 1820-1860; and then cross-hatching and a wash of underglaze cobalt blue or copper red (or overglaze iron red as in your example), ca.1860-1920.Sorry for the confusion,Best,Joey